LOCAL GP practices have been defending their use of non-local telephone codes after an attack from the Patients' Association.

The association says one in five practices is using 0844 numbers, which can cost as much as 40p a minute to call from a mobile telephone.

Two and a half years ago, the government banned NHS organisations from setting up new premium (09) and national rate (087) telephone numbers for patients contacting local services.

But Katherine Murphy from the Patients Association said even the 0844 number flouts government guidance that the NHS should charge no more than local rates.

"You ring up and are confronted with a long list of options. And all the time it is costing an absolute fortune," she said.

Judith Young, practice manager at the Talbot Medical Centre in Wallisdown, Bournemouth, which has an 0844 number, said its Network Europe Group service helped patients get through to the right person at the right time.

The switch had been made to improve the service for the group's 16,000 patients. "We have had much-improved access to the doctor on the telephone," she claimed.

The Holdenhurst Road surgery, which also has an 0844 number, said patients seemed to feel they were getting a better service, but if new guidance came out, it would look again at its system.

A spokeswoman for Ofcom said: "The cost of calling an 0844 number can certainly be more than calling a geographical number, but that would depend on the package you're on and the line you are calling from.

"Sometimes there can be problems phoning from abroad and these numbers don't tend to be included in discounts.

"Guidance given by the Central Office of Information says public sector bodies should be looking at normal 01 or 02 numbers."

She added that Ofcom had also issued 13 million new 03 numbers, as now used by the Ministry of Defence and RSPCA.

Customers calling them are charged the same as a local call whatever kind of line they are ringing from.